Temple Trekking
Temple Trekking is a members-only minigame in which the player must escort victims of vampyre rule from Burgh de Rott through Morytania to the Paterdomus, the temple on River Salve, on the way guiding them through bogs and over rivers while defending them from dangerous packs of monsters, some unique to this minigame. (Requires In Aid of the Myreque) Burgh de Rott Ramble is the reverse route in which the player escorts potential Myreque recruits from the Paterdomus to Burgh de Rott. (Requires Darkness of Hallowvale) The difficulty of either minigame is determined by whether the player chooses weaker or stronger people (called followers) to escort and whether the player chooses to take easier or harder paths through Morytania. Escorting weaker followers means a greater number of monsters will attack when a monster attack event occurs. Taking harder paths means the monsters will have higher combat levels when a monster attack event occurs. A journey succeeds if the player and follower reach the destination, whereupon the player receives a reward. A journey fails if the player or follower is killed. A journey is aborted if the player chooses the escape path or teleports out of the minigame at any time. Several events are likely to occur in each journey. There are three types of events: friendly events in which the player and follower can be healed and have their defences raised, combat events in Multicombat area in which monsters attempt to attack the player and follower, and puzzle events, typically involve overcoming terrain obstacles, that the player must solve. All combat and some puzzle events are dangerous. These two activities provides opportunities to cross-train in most skills. Combat experience (including Prayer) is gained during battle events. Monster drops and minigame rewards provide some of the staple materials used in Crafting, Cooking, Farming, Fletching, Herblore, Runecrafting, and Smithing, while Tomes of experience can be awarded for Agility, Firemaking, Fishing, Mining, Slayer, Thieving, and Woodcutting. Players can also pick up pieces of Lumberjack clothes, which are found only in this minigame. Since the player loses if the follower is killed, one basic tactic in most combat events is for the player to shield the follower from the monsters. This means the player's body will typically be a meat-shield between fairly strong melee enemies and the follower. There are two practical strategies to achieve this: * Wear high-defence melee armour. This helps protect the player from the monsters' attacks. This strategy means that the player should typically use melee, as the melee armour will interfere with using ranged or magic. * Use protection Prayers. Most monsters attack with melee, so Protect from Melee can be used. Giant Snails attack with ranged, so Protect from Missiles can also be used. When using prayer, any combat style can be used against most monsters, Although, generally, melee is most effective. For magic, Ancient Magicks could be quite useful in some events, as some spells can affect a group of monsters. Please note that players may not take any cat into this minigame. Note: This is a dangerous minigame. If you die, you will not be able to retrieve any of your lost items. Getting there There are several ways to reach Canifis quickly, where the minigame may be started. Some of these include: *Fairy ring code *Kharyrll Teleport (Requires completion of Desert Treasure and 66 Magic) *Ectophial and running west to Canifis *Teleport to the Slayer Tower just north of Canifis using a slayer ring *Walking from Varrock *Using a Player Owned House with a Kharyll Teleport *Using a Mort'ton teleport scroll Supplying your follower A follower can hold 15 items of food in their backpack, also called the Follower Inventory. They will retain items from one trip to the next, even after logout. The Follower Inventory is used by all followers, so anything given to one is available to all followers, regardless of difficulty and location. It is a good idea to fill their pack before starting a trek, while talking to them, and before agreeing to escort them. To fill their pack, use a food item on them. They will "open their backpack" which opens the Follower Inventory, and complete list of food items they will accept and spaces remaining. It is not possible to see what they already have in their pack, only how many more items that can be given. The follower inventory can only be filled with the items listed below before the trip. If desired food can also be taken back out if it has just been put in. After giving food to the follower it is recommended to then return to the bank to retrieve additional food for the trip. Once ready, restart the dialogue and agree to escort them. Items that followers accept: : During the events the follower can be resupplied with food. At this point, all food types are accepted, not just the ones previously specified. All food supplied during the event will heal the same amount (10 hit points), unlike the food supplied prior to starting (which heals the amount it is supposed to). For this reason, it is advantageous to allocate one inventory slot for a sack filled with a food, such as cabbages, allowing for the healing and food replenishment of the follower as much as 10 times per inventory slot. Your follower will lose all of their food if you use the escape option to leave the event or if you teleport out of the minigame. (Completing the event or using the evade option to evade an event does not cause follower food to be lost.) Requirements to start The following Quests must be completed to play this minigame: *In Aid of the Myreque *Darkness of Hallowvale for Burgh de Rott Ramble. Temple trekking starts at the town of Burgh de Rott. Start the minigame by speaking to one of the NPCs standing nearby. Burgh de Rott Ramble starts on the east side of the River Salve just outside the temple. A player can start at either side. Weapons and armour *One standard weapon. Fast weapons are recommended for this minigame, especially on route 3: You have to kill a monster quickly when he attacks your follower. *Dragon dagger for its special attack to protect the follower. *Ancient Mace may be used to regain some prayer points mid-trek. *Rod of Ivandis or other silver weapons are required to kill vampyres. See below. *Salve amulet (e) many of the combat encounters are undead; a salve amulet (e) boosts accuracy and strength against undead by 20% the non-enchanted version only boosts by 15%. *Dragon or crystal halberd can be very useful to melee monsters safely, especially if they get stuck behind obstacles. *A high Melee defence and Prayer bonus setup is recommended. Veracs or Proselyte will conserve both prayer and food. *Snelm for fighting giant snails. Inventory *Guthix balance potion recommended for slaying vampyres. *Druid pouch to defend against Ghasts. Stock up before starting. *Knife to skin Snakes. *Prayer potions are optional, and recommended for first time trekking via the Route 3. *An axe and a tinderbox may be helpful, however, they are provided in events when needed. *Food, both for personal healing and to heal the follower. Remember that the follower can accept any type of food mid-trip, so a basket or sack of food is highly recommended. A sack filled with food also saves a lot of work with the campsite event. *A (super) combat potion can help you deal damage to normally hard to kill juvinates. *Enough open space to pick up items quickly during events. *If using prayer it is suggested that you bring a holy wrench from Rum Deal as it gives a prayer boost when you use a prayer potion. Prayer During treks it is recommended, but not necessary, to have full prayer points. Certain monsters in the events can hit hard (so Protect prayers come in handy). Also, you need prayer points to collect items for druid pouches, if you need any. The Paterdomus temple and Nature Spirit altar are quite close by to the start of each route. Prayer potions can be used too. However, higher-level players who have brought the correct equipment should have little need of prayer though it does make it safer and easier for lower-level players. Silver weapons Vampyre Juvinates can only be harmed by relatively weak silver weapons. A dragon defender will greatly increase accuracy against Juvinates if using a one handed weapon. *Rod of Ivandis will perform capably, and using its special with Guthix balance potion allows the player to finish off Juvinates at slightly below 50% health. *Wolfbane is fast and has a prayer bonus, but will not perform as well. *Darklight, Silverlight or Arclight *Blessed axe *Silver bolts used with a crossbow (iron or better.) *Silver Sickle (b) (Also good against Ghasts) *Rune throwing axes will not hurt Juvinates, but using their special at the beginning of an encounter will keep them from attacking, and likely killing, the follower (especially on harder routes). People to escort The people to escort are divided into 3 groups: easy, medium and hard. The followers on Temple Trekking are clothed in colours that intend to show their difficulty, while the followers on Burgh de Rott Ramble are dressed to resemble typical player characters and their likely abilities. In combat and campsite events, the number of monsters faced (or people helped) are determined by which follower is escorted. Easy/strong followers have 3, Medium have 4, and Hard/weak have 5 or 6. The number of monsters a player defeats on a Trek or Ramble will largely determine the size of reward. Routes Citizens of Burgh de Rott and the mercenaries of Misthalin can be escorted by 3 different paths, the main difference being the combat level of the monsters faced. Depending upon combat level and available gear, choose an appropriate path. *'Route 1:' This is the easy and circuitous route through the Mort Myre Swamp. The player will need to complete mostly 3 events on this path, but it can also be between 0-7. Players can choose to evade any combat events. The monsters on this path are around level 80. Rune armour should be a minimum for combat events on this route. Players in Burgh de Rott who do not wish to partake in Temple Trekking events needing a quick shortcut to Paterdomus may be able to use this route to that end. They can evade events that take place not close enough to Paterdomus, and then leave the trail for events that take place when Paterdomus comes close. *'Route 2:' This is the medium route that travels along the River Salve. There can be 0-4 events on this path and the monsters will be around level 110. Prayer may be useful for certain events depending on the player's level, so choosing pure defence armour or prayer armour will be at the player's discretion. In order to evade combat events, the player must complete at least 50% of the event first. *'Route 3:' This is the hard route which uses the shortcut in Canifis, narrow pathways through the Hollows and the boat to Mort'ton. The monsters are around level 140, and there is no way to evade any event. There can be 0-5 events on this path, but most often there will be 3 events. Prayer will be important to surviving this route at any level, so having Prayer boosting gear is recommended. Escorting a weak follower is not recommended for this route but is still possible. Events There are 3 different types of events that might happen when you're moving forward. Each path has a different amount of spots where an event may occur. Once an event occurs, the player and follower are pulled into the event area. The player will start in front of a section of path with blue stones. Right-clicking will display an Escape option, which abandons the trip and leaves the player in the middle of the swamp normally. At the opposite end of the area is the path that allows the player to "Continue-trek", once the event is completed. In combat events on the easy and medium routes, there are paths that evade-event that when used will skip the event and continue trekking, adding no reward and increasing the chance for another event. On the medium route, 50% of the monsters must be killed before being able to use Evade-event. Friendly event A man named Abidor Crank will appear as an event and heal you and the follower, boosting your Defence level by 10 and your Hit points by 15. He also turns all Rotten foods into Stews. Combat events In combat events a certain number of enemies will attack player and escort. For most of the combat events, the monsters give a few seconds before attacking. This is the player's chance to position him- or herself between the follower and the monsters. All combat events are multi-way combat. Combat events provide the majority of the end reward when completed. Puzzle events There are four different types of puzzle events. Rewards After successfully completing a trek, the follower will give the player a Reward token. These tokens can be blue, yellow, or red, depending on the chosen route. The reward amount is determined by how many monsters are fought, what level they were, and how many puzzle events were completed, as explained below. The token given can be exchanged for the reward anywhere. This table shows the max reward possible on any trek for each item. Occasionally, Tomes of Experience are given as a reward. Unlike most experience tomes, the skill is predetermined and not selectable. These tomes give some experience in one of the following specific skills: Agility, Thieving, Slayer, Firemaking, Fishing, Woodcutting, or Mining. The colour of the tome depends upon which route the player has chosen. Trek ratings The rewards above are distributed based on the difficulty of the Trek. Trek ratings are theoretical numbers, as there is no display in game to show how a Trek is rated. Assuming that when less than the maximum reward is given, a certain percentage is given according to a rating accumulated on a Trek, and that any rating in excess of 100 will result in a 100% reward is received, then each event adds the following amount to the Trek rating. *Abidor Crank and Bridge with Lumberjacks add nothing. *Bridge (with trees), Bog, and River add about 6.5 to the trek rating on all routes. *The swamp creature only appearing on Route 3 adds 50 to the Trek rating. *The remaining combat events and the Campsite event add the following approximate amounts of reward based on the number of monsters and the difficulty of the route. The table below shows how much is added per event completed. *A Trek with no rating will give 4% of the reward. *The amount of experience given by a Tome of experience is unaffected by Trek ratings. It is possible (and common) to exceed a 100 Trek rating on Route 3, and even a 200 rating with the hardest combination. However, there is no extra reward for exceeding a 100 rating. A case study of 30 Treks shows that guiding the strongest followers on Route 3 tends to average a Trek rating of 89.9, with a reward average of 88.0% when excluding Tomes of experience, and an expected reward value of 82.3% had those Tomes been measurable rewards. The approximate market value of the rewards totaled 786,000 Coins, with 23,843 experience from Tomes. Trivia *The description for the clothes reads, "You'll certainly be alright wearing these", referring to The Lumberjack Song in the British comedy sketch television show Monty Python's Flying Circus. The clothes themselves look just like those that the typical lumberjack wears. This is one of many references to Monty Python found in RuneScape *When you examine lumberjack zombies, it will say “He's the one, but he's not alright” which is a reference to Monty Python’s “Lumberjack song”.